Lovesick
by HPtwilightfanatic
Summary: Love can very easily be mistaken for Dragon Pox. Lily Evans discovers the mistake as she keeps running into James Potter all day. He can't possibly be causing the sickness, but maybe something else is there between them. L/J oneshot.


The day had been rough right from the start.

Lily had slipped on the bathroom floor, making for a nice bruise to form on her hip. Her nose had been all stuffed up, clogging the rest of her head. She'd lost one of her socks, and for the first time in her life, she'd forgotten to finish her Potions assignment.

She grumbled down at her eggs, using her napkin to wipe her running nose rather than her mouth. It was as if a neon sign shown above her, warning the rest of the school to steer clear of her. Every student heeded the warning.

With the exception of James Potter.

He waltzed right up to her, taking the seat across from her. Lily's stomach suddenly complained, as it always did when the unruly haired boy made an appearance. Dropping her fork, she took to glowering at Potter, deciding to blame him for how ruddy her morning had been so far.

"I hope you slept well last night Evans?" He inquired good-naturedly, scooping up his own forkful of eggs. Her stomach twisted again.

"I bet you do." She answered, not pausing in her glare.

James lifted a quizzical brow at her as he swallowed, taking another bite of eggs. Before she could stop it, her gaze fell to his lips as he chewed. They looked soft, with no speck of food in sight. He swallowed again, the tip of his tongue poking out to swipe his bottom lip.

Lily jolted, ripping her eyes away and back to her own eggs, which did not look appetizing at all anymore. She lightly pushed her plate away from her before a sneeze erupted from her nose.

"Bless you," Her gaze was brought up again to the boy across from her, who was offering her his own napkin after he spoke. She took the napkin hesitantly, but gratefully, for hers was already quite used up.

The bell rang, and Lily pulled her eyes away form the hazel ones and made to gather up her books.

"Are you sure you want to come to class today? Marly and I can tell the professors you're not feeling well." Alice lightly touched her friend's shoulder, her motherly instincts beginning to kick in.

"I haven't missed class before, Al. I'm fine." The redhead was determined, sniffing as she marched down the hallway.

She thought she would start to feel better as the day went on, that perhaps it was simply a morning cold. But it only got worse. Her sniffling became more frequent, along with her sneezing. She was interrupting lectures and conversations with her sneezes, earning herself some exasperated glances.

"Seriously Lily, you should go to the infirmary. Madame Pomfrey could give you something for your nose." Marly nudged Lily as they walked, only causing her to sneeze again.

"Siriusly Evans. You're sneezing all over the place."

Marly rolled her eyes as Sirius came up beside her, though Lily noticed, she did not throw off the arm that snuck around her shoulders.

"Lay off her, Padfoot."

Lily whirled to face the oh so familiar voice that came from behind her, but before she could find his hazel eyes, a wave of dizziness washed over her, her feet seeming to tie together in a knot. The hall swirled together in front of her, making her stomach tumble in an awful way.

All of it stopped when a pair of hands settled at her waist, pulling her tightly into a cloud that smelled strongly of the dew that forms on grass in the mornings as her cheek rubbed against his cloak.

"Are you alright there?" James' voice came in her ear, making her shiver in her own cloak.

"Just a little dizzy," she shook her head to clear it, when she realized her hands were clutching tightly at his shoulders. "Thanks." She mumbled, not really sure if he heard or not as she slowly pulled away from him, still a little wary that the dizziness would return.

"I'm telling you, Lils-"

"Alice, please. I'm fine." Lily responded a little shortly with her friend, her fingers coming up to lightly massage her temples.

There were no more dizzy spells on the way to Charms, though Lily could feel James rather close to her back, just in case. She tried to ignore the warm breath that reached the back of her neck, because she felt the dizzy spell would strike again if she focused too much on the feel of its warmth.

Charms was just as bad as the previous classes. Flitwick's voice was so squeaky and high, it was hard to hear over Lily's sneezing and sniffling. She gave up straining to hear the lecture through her rather clogged ears and took to gazing into space.

Well, not exactly space.

James sat directly in front of her. Most of the time, she would be miffed that his head blocked her view of the board, but today, her eyes were glued purposefully to the back of his head. His hair used to make her so mad, with how one of his hands was always running through it, fluffing it up. Now, it just looked so soft. The desk he sat in wasn't too far in front of hers. She could easily reach the messy mop. If she could just extend her hand far enough…

Before her fingers could brush his hair however, he turned to face her, a smirk very pronounced on his features. He leaned towards her, not giving a thought to the other students around them. His hand came up, lightly brushing her jaw as he moved even closer.

"Feeling dizzy again?" He asked, his voice low in his throat. In fact, Lily was feeling extremely dizzy at the moment. To make that go away, all she would have to do is close her eyes. His warm breath fanned over her, and she angled her head up to meet the soft-

"Are you in there? Lily?" Jumping in her seat, Lily came face to face with James Potter. Her mind tumbled in confusion. Hadn't he been much closer than that only moments ago? Hadn't he been just about to-

This James' eyes were not glazed over with lust, his lips were not brushing hers at all. This James' brow was creased in concern for her.

Lily glanced at her hand, which had not moved to weave into James' hair, but had stayed attached to her quill. "What the-?" She'd imagined it? The redhead shook her head slowly.

"Are you okay?" James asked, moving closer to her.

Lily shot from her seat, moving as far away from him as she could. She couldn't be this close to him and let her thoughts get out of hand again. "Er, yeah! I think. Probably. See you later!" Her voice was far too high to pass for normal, but she didn't much care as she made for the hallway. Instead of rushing to her next class, where James was sure to follow her to, she went in the direction of the infirmary. After that bout of crazy in Charms, she was starting to believe she really wasn't well.

"You do have a fever." Madame Pomfrey mused, handing the redhead a cool washcloth for her forehead.

"Are you sure?" This couldn't be just a fever. Fevers were not like this.

The old nurse smiled at the girl, handing her a slip of paper. "Yes, I'm sure, but here. I'll alert the rest of your teachers that you're resting. That's a pass for you to rest back up in your own dormitory."

Lily was grateful to escape classes, not worrying about her record as much as she was her health. Though, Madame Pomfrey couldn't be right; she had more than a fever. There was something more going on here.

Lily settled in her bed, taking out one of her textbooks to search for strange sicknesses. She hadn't been around any plants lately, so she couldn't have Mushroom Rash, and she hadn't been around many animals, besides Alice's cat, but there were no diseases that could be contracted from felines.

"How are you feeling?" Lily glanced up to see her friends entering the room. She hadn't even noticed the day go by, but by the scene from her window, the sun was already low among the trees.

She shrugged in response, pushing her textbook to the side. "I don't know. I don't usually get sick that often."

Alice flung herself onto her own bed. "Neither do I. Though, I had Dragon Pox when I was six. It was the worst thing I've ever been through." Alice's eyes seemed to travel back to the torturous time; they widened as a frightfully pale shade made its home on her face.

"I got it last summer. It was just awful." Marlene added.

"Awful?"

"Terrible." She assured.

"What's it like?" Lily could feel her nails digging into her palms. She hadn't come across this sickness in her book.

"Well, it kind of starts with the head cold."

"Then you don't want to eat anything."

"Then the dizziness settles in."

"And the hallucinations." Both girls shuddered.

"The beginning is worse than all the itching later." Just talking about it made them all itchy, Lily beginning to absentmindedly scratch at her arm.

"Well, I said I was going to meet Frank in the library before dinner."

"I doubt any studying will be going on." Marly got a book thrown at her for that comment, but she dissolved into giggles anyway.

Lily was not laughing along with her friends, however.

Head cold. Lack of hunger. Dizziness. Hallucinations. Dragon Pox.

She had Dragon Pox. She was sure of it. She knew Madame Pomfrey had missed something, turns out something very important.

"See you later, Lily."

"Feel better!" The girls left again, leaving Lily itching her left arm until it hurt.

"_It was the worst thing I've ever been through."_

"_It was just awful."_

"Oh, shit." Lily whispered, clutching the sheets around her. She could almost feel the virus rushing through her, cackling evilly as it infected her. The redhead shuddered, not wanting to go through this at all. She'd never even had the muggle Chicken Pox, but this Dragon Pox sounded multiple times worse.

Lily threw her comforter over her, creating a makeshift quarantine for herself under the sheets. She didn't know how long she'd been under there, her thoughts attacking her with worst case scenarios just as the virus attacked her, when a knock sounded at the door. Lily poked her head out of the sheets, sending a wary glance at the door.

"Who is it?" She called. Did her voice sound raspy? Was her throat succumbing to the sickness yet? Or was she imagining things?

"James." His voice was muffled by the door, but it still made her jump.

Lily's hands grasped the sheets without her permission, her stomach performing a perfect back flip.

"Don't come in! You'll get sick!" Lily thought her voice definitely sounded raspier that time.

"What are you talking about?"

"I have Dragon Pox!" She expected to hear the boy's footsteps retreating from her contaminated door as fast as they could carry him, but instead, the sound of the doorknob turning filled the room.

"No, James! You can't! I don't want to get you sick!" James stood in the doorway, simply gazing at her. "You have to go!" She warned.

He let his bag drop to the floor and sauntered over to her bed. His hand came up and gripped her chin, pulling her mouth open.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked; though it came out more like "Wha-ou-aye?" as her mouth was wide open.

He only glanced at her mouth before releasing her, a smile forming as he took a seat next to her on the bed.

"What are you smiling about?"

"Your tongue is red."

Lily stared at the boy as if he was the one sick in bed. "Very good observation. Thank you for that. Now leave before you get sick too."

James only laughed. "If you had Dragon Pox, your tongue would be purple."

It took a moment for that to sink into Lily's mind, but when it did, she threw her covers off, practically knocking James to the floor. Scrambling for the bathroom, she checked for herself. Her tongue was indeed red.

"What, you didn't trust me?" James leaved against the door frame, watching her in the mirror.

"It just doesn't make sense!"

"What doesn't make sense?"

Lily turned to face him, and her stomach twisted much like it had this morning. "I had all of the symptoms."

"You probably just have a cold." James tried to move towards her, but Lily rushed past him, pacing the dorm.

"No, you don't understand. I had _all _of the symptoms!" Lily could practically feel her hair frizzing as she got more and more frazzled.

"Except for the purple tongue."

She went on full speed ahead, ignoring James' rational observation.

"I woke up this morning with a head cold and my nose was running."

"Really?" James' eyes followed her as she paced back and forth with an amused expression on his face.

"Yes. You gave me your napkin after I sneezed."

"Ah yes," James recalled. "But that's only one symptom."

"I know. Then, halfway through breakfast, I wasn't hungry anymore."

"That's a symptom?"

"Yes. Alice and Marly told me so, at least. You had just gotten there and sat right across from me."

"That I did." A low chuckle rumbled in James' chest.

"Then I went into a dizzy spell." Lily ticked the third symptom off on her finger.

"Did you?"

"Yes. You were there. You caught me. Remember?"

"Oh yeah," James nodded, his eyes still following her.

"And then I had the hallucination of-" Her pacing finally froze on the wood floor, her eyes glued to the mirror that was still visible from the bathroom. She could see James, his gaze on her, in their reflection, and her mind wandered to the dangerous ground of her hallucination in Charms. How close they'd been to…

"_If you had Dragon Pox, your tongue would be purple."_ Experimentally, one more time to make sure, Lily stuck her tongue out in the mirror. Still red.

"Lily?" She could still hear James' voice, but it was muffled as her thoughts sped through her mind.

Explaining it all now to James, it had hit her.

She'd been fine most of the day, but all of these Dragon Pox symptoms had only occurred when James Potter had been near her. Lily began to tremble. It wasn't Dragon Pox at all. It was James.

"Oh, Merlin." She murmured as her knees gave out beneath her. A shout reached her ears, but her mind only focused on the arms encircling her waist. He had caught her again.

"You really can't make a habit of this falling thing, you know that?"

She could only stare at him, taking in his light smile, his glowing eyes, and the locks of crazy hair that fell over his ears and forehead.

"Oh, Merlin." She repeated. Her stomach was doing endless somersaults, and the world was spinning all around the two of them. "It's all you." She whispered, slowly becoming able to support herself as she stood up straight on her own legs, but her hands stayed at his shoulders.

"Me? What's all me?"

"The symptoms! You're right, it's not Dragon Pox! But it's you! Don't you see? You were there for all of my symptoms!"

James frowned slightly down at the redhead that was still in his arms. "So you feel sick when I'm around you? That's great." He drawled, his voice harboring a dry tone.

"No! It's not like that! I feel like that when I'm in love with you!" Lily froze at her words, wishing she hadn't been that open with the boy. She hadn't been ready for that to pop out of her lips, it had more snuck out. It was true, but Lily hadn't even thought about it first. Though, she never did get much thinking in around James; her mind was too clouded.

His eyes widened for a fraction of a second, his mouth floundering for something to say, until he frowned again. "So it makes you sick to be in love with me." It made it worse that he wasn't asking her, he was making a statement.

Lily felt like smacking herself in the forehead. This had made a lot more sense in her head.

"No, James. Not at all. It's more like…symptoms of love. Not being sick. When I'm around you-" She took a deep breath, not really believing she was about to say this out loud with those hazel eyes boring right into her. "When I'm around you, my stomach does all sorts of weird things, making eating something not exactly an option. Then when you look at me, or really, are even near me, my head gets all dizzy and confused. I can't breathe. And my thoughts-"

Usually, when listing off symptoms, one is not interrupted. And usually, Lily would have been slightly upset at being interrupted. But this interruption, she welcomed gladly, throwing her arms around James' neck as she kissed him back.

All of the symptoms were back, but magnified. Her head was clouded over by the scent of him. His hands slid up her back, making unusual noises come from the redhead. If these were the symptoms of love, Lily never wanted to be out of love.

"I'm glad your tongue's not purple." James murmured against her lips as he slid his own against her non-purple tongue. She giggled against his mouth. Lily was lost in him, pulling him close so every inch of her met every inch of him. It was as if they were molded to fit perfectly together, lips to lips, chest to chest, waist to waist.

Very suddenly, Lily gasped, pulling her lips away from James'.

"I don't want to get you sick!" She shouted, her hands moving to hold his face.

"Lily, I though we'd established this. You don't have Dragon Pox." James laughed, pulling her tight against him again.

He was so tempting, but she held back, settling for laying her head against his chest. "I know. But Madame Pomfrey did say I have a fever."


End file.
